Pluses, minuses to 1 per cent training obligation in Quebec

Quebec’s one per cent training obligation — la loi sur les compétences, originally known as Bill 90 — became law in 1996. To date, the legislation remains unique in Canada.

It requires firms with an annual Quebec payroll of $1 million or more to allocate one per cent of their Quebec payrolls to the training of their workforce, or to pay an equivalent sum into a national government fund to support the development of workforce training.

However, this amount is not considered a tax — officially, it is considered a contribution to the Quebec government training fund. In addition, the one per cent training obligation has become a highly specialized and technical area of audit by Revenu Québec.